
EXCLUSIVE: Working Title UK has acquired Dunkirk, a spec script by Gavin Scott that has Oliver Parker attached to direct. The script chronicles the courage of British civilians, men and women who used small boats to cross the English Channel and rescue 200,000 British troops and 140,000 French troops from the advancing Germans. Dunkirk was one of the battles that changed the course of WWII. Scott wrote the script and brought to Parker, whose credits include Dorian Gray, and Johnny English Reborn. Scott’s script work includes Small Soldiers and The Borrowers and series that include Young Indiana Jones. He’s currently teamed with Terry Jones on an adaptation of Good Omens, the Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett comic novel. He and Jones also scripted Absolutely Anything, which Jones is directing with his Monty Python mates and Robin Williams. Scott is repped by Original Artists in the US and Linda Seifert Management in the UK, and Parker is repped by Independent Talent Group.


The real story behind DUNKIRK, the real incredible reason why the Germans just stood by and let 340,000 of their “enemy” escape… Well, you’re not going to see it depicted on screen anytime soon.
They say the first casualty of war is TRUTH!
Dunkirk was an epic moment of WWII, full of heroism, drama, and cinematic potential (i.e. ATONEMENT). But it was not an event that “changed the course” of the war. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must click over to Facebook to “like” BAND OF BROTHERS while watching the Military Channel in HD.
But will Working Title feature that lone American whose sole actions enabled the British and French to turn the tide and rescue those 340,000 men that day? They need to if Hollywood historical accuracy is to be maintained.
Hundreds of thousands of British soldiers escaped death at Dunkirk because Hitler chose to let them escape. I don’t know how you spin that into a rousing movie exactly. Either the audience leaves shaking their heads saying “well, thank god Hitler was such a military idiot, that could have been ugly!”, or you whitewash the story and make it one of British heroism I suppose.
Dunkirk did not change the course of WW2. Not even close.
Stalingrad. Midway. Normandy. Not Dunkirk.